A call for information on TV cards.

I have been building a Personal Video Recorder based around the VIA Epia m1000G motherboard. I have everything except the television card. The actual card that I wanted was the Hauppauge pvr-500 but Hauppauge does not sell them any more. Their equivalent card has a PCIex connection but the motherboard only has a PCI slot.

What I want is an analog twin tuner quality PCI tv card with remote control that is compatible with Mythtv. I have asked my mate google repeatedly but I keep getting garbled answers. I don't want second hand. It must be new. As the motherboard is low powered the card must also have hardware mpeg2 encoding. Is there such a beast floating around? I really don't wish to go the route of two cards as I only want a single antenna connection. The only ones that I can find seem to be DVB cards but our cable is analog. It also seems the the hybrid DVB/analog twin tuners just means one tuner for analog and one for DVB which is not what I want.

I need the ability to record one channel while watching another over an analog cable connection or antenna. I cannot seem to find a PCI card which does this.

I am confused, my head is spinning and I cannot see the forest because of the trees. Can someone help show me the light at the end of the tunnel? Can someone cut a swath through the marketing hype and gift me with the benefit of experience and solid answers?

8 Comments

I agree on the Hauppauge pvr-500, I was given two of them second-hand, although I have been unable to get them to work and we don't have a TV in the basement, so that is on hold. Would be curious what you come up with.

While that is possible and I have done it with an Australian buddy who sent me some Vegemite (love the stuff and am very gratefull to the Aussie buddy) Our customs has limitations on what the average slob like me can import. Once I can get a business license I intend to be doing bulk imports.

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